Protector of Loyalty
by Sharkey52
Summary: *Sequel to Protector of Silence*. Decades have passed since Operation Brighton, and it's time for a new generation to step forward. Summer's wanted to be a ranger all her life - with her parentage, what else would she ever want to be? She has a great legacy to follow, but unanswered questions in her life are back to haunt her, Oblivia and perhaps even the ones she loves the most.
1. Return to Oblivia

**My dear and loyal readers! Welcome back to the universe Sharkey52 has created within the Pokémon world where psychic beings walk ten earth (in fear mostly), Almia and Fiore once had a really big war, people you think are dead aren't (instead they crack jokes in pointless filler chapters and quote the limited TV shows and movies this author watches) and it is possible to have white pupils if you've got a piece of another dimension instead your head, hence giving you awesome super powers that usually get you killed (hence the psychic beings living in fear bit). Wahoo!**

**But seriously, thank you for sticking around. I've had this idea in my head since the middle of Protector of Silence and I intended to post it as soon as I was done with that whopper of a fic, but just as I was starting the first chapter, I got hit with my GCSE year. Ouch. That means writing at all is getting steadily impossible so I can't promise you much, but I'll do my best. If it's any comfort at all, I have a three-month-long summer holiday starting mid-June so after that it should be smooth sailing story-wise. But, as many readers have requested this story _now_, they've got their wish.**

**So, some quick info before we begin. This story is set somewhere in the range of about 25 years after Protector of Silence. I know, wow, time-skip and all that. But all shall make sense eventually. That puts Kellyn and at gang at about 36 or so, so obvious they won't be the main characters, but they're still pretty important as you will see. Also, this means the Murph referred to in this story is actually called Murph Imachi Jr - son of the Murph from Holiday Spirit - and he's in training to become PR to the Ranger Union like his dad. The old Muroh will typically be referred to as 'Uncle Imachi' by our main characters, just to clear that up. Also, this story is set at about two-and-a-half years after the game 'Guardian Signs'. **

**A quick warning though. For a few of the chapters I've written at least in part, Ben may act very differently to how he normally does in my other fics. However, he does have a good reason for this that shall be explain eventually.**

**So, one last thank you to all my readers out there who have stuck with this storyline, and I hope your enjoy this pilot chapter.**

* * *

**"Now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."**

**"Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"**

* * *

For Emzie - Protector of Silence's biggest fan and my total writing support. This one's for you.

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter One - Return to Oblivia**

It was only mid-morning in the middle of January, but Summer found herself wishing she'd remembered to pack her sun cream anyway. She shaded her eyes from the sun as she strode out onto the deck of the Union, her eyes meeting nothing but endless ocean over the railing. Raising her arms above her head and arching her back into a stretch, she let her bare feet touch the wooden deck, wincing slightly at the heat already, and peered out towards the front of the boat.

Ah, there he was.

Clad in a pair of shorts, a T- shirt and a pair of sandals as well as a pair of ("epic") sunglasses, her parter was leant on the wooden railing at the front of the boat, a puzzle book and a pencil in his hands.

"Hey Ben-Ben" she smiled, leaning against the railing beside him, ignoring he slight burning sensation on her arms as her tank top failed to protect them. Like Ben, she'd forsaken her uniform for now as they were officially in international waters.

"Good morning Summer" Ben just put on a small smile that was code for 'really happy to see you and all that, but I only got a few hours sleep and my head hurts from the spiked punch at our goodbye party, so I'm just not in the mood to be over-excitable right now'. He tapped his chin twice with the rubber end of his pencil. "Nope, still no good nicknames for that."

Summer shoved his shoulder, coaxing a laugh out of both of them. "Did you get any sleep?"

"Two hours" Ben clarified, directing his gaze down to his almost completed word search. "Your dad's voice screeching 'Don't Stop Believing' is forever stuck in my poor pounding head."

Summer winced, trying to block the mental images from her head. She'd never, never forgive her dad for that stunt. "I dunno, I think Uncle Imachi and Mr and Mr Pemberton's routine of 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' was worse." Now she tried to block the images of her second best friend's dad and Freddie and Julian Pemberton's horrific semi-drunk routine (except Freddie - he was definitely drunk, probably getting close to the 'trashed' mark. His husband...maybe less so). "Honestly, there were kids at that party! Murph's gonna be stuck with those images of his dad in his head forever!"

"I think they were making up for the lack of drunken acts at New Years" Ben pitched in "You know, terrible blizzards in the north and all that - lack of party and karaoke. Not to mention the lack of a bad blood-alcohol level."

"Maybe, but couldn't they have waited until we'd left?" Summer sighed, leaning on the railing even more now as she looped one foot around her other ankle.

"Sorta nulls the point of it being a '_Goodbye_ Party'" Ben pointed out, turning the page on his word search as he finished it and moving onto a sudoku.

"True" Summer pulled a face and nodded. She leaned forward a bit and looked past Ben at the miles and mile of nothing but pure ocean stretching before them. "Risking sounding like a child, how long do we have before we get there?"

"You're fourteen - you're still a child" Ben answered, ignoring Summer's adorable pout at that comment. "And the last I heard from Murph it was another eight hours."

"What?! Oh c'mon!" Summer whined "We left at, like, _midnight_ last night!"

"Yeah, and we had to stop three times to let passengers on and off so we and Murph are the only ones left now" Ben pointed out "And close your mouth because I'll remind you again now when you're not about to fall asleep - we had to deliver passengers to Fiore, Kanto and Unova because Murph wants to get to the next level of his PR training before he turns sixteen in May and that includes assisting members of the public. So he can now check that off his list of stuff to do."

"But why must it take so long?!" Summer complained on "It only takes, like, three or four hours on a Staraptor or Latias!"

"I'm sure my partner Pokémon will be flattered when she wakes up and I tell her" Ben's smile grew slightly "And as an official Aerial Ranger I do know this for certain, it's faster travelling by bird Pokémon because they're faster than boats at top speed and we can take a shortcut over Jhoto and Kanto by air. Boats have to go around land and avoid storms and rough seas and all sorts, so the Union will get there slower without any doubt whatsoever."

"Okay, looks like your new badge has added a few brain cells to your head" Summer smirked, joking gesturing to Ben's new Aerial Ranger badge pinned to his tea shirt. "But seriously, this boat ride feels slower than the original journey. And that takes something!"

"Are you referring to the fact we got lost over Hoenn that time, or when we lost the map near the end and you had to use your freaky psychic 'I can talk to Pokémon and apparently ask them for directions' thing on some Wingulls?" Ben asked, craning his neck back as he thought about that important point in their lives. "Arceus, has it really been two-and-a-half years since then? We were just kids. Little kids."

"Time flies huh. I can't wait to see Nema and Pichu and everyone again" Summer stretched, arching her back and raising her arms above her head for the second time. She cricked her shoulder and wondered if she'd lain funny or something.

"Yeah, but it was great to go home for the holidays" Ben pointed out "It gets boring singing Auld Lang Syne with Rand _every_ New Years."

"You only had to do it once - it's not Rand's fault he can't sing" Summer pointed out, a grin on her face as she poked Ben on the arm, tempting a bigger smile out of her partner. "But your right for once, it was great to spend Hanukkah with Mum and Dad again."

"Seriously, why do you insist on not calling it Christmas?" Ben gave her a strange look, as if this was a question that had been puzzling him for a long time. "I mean, you're not religious - you never went to Jew church."

"It's called a synagogue and I went there once for the world's shortest Bat Mitzvah ever. Seriously, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records" Summer explained, inwardly wincing for the third or fourth time that day as she remembered having to run without her uniform to her next urgent mission the second the ceremony was over, ripping her clothes and loosing one of her shoes in the process. "And it's habit more than anything. My dad was raised in that faith, but he still calls it Christmas around his colleagues at the Ranger Union. And my mum just said she liked the sound of Hanukkah better." Summer shot her partner a teasing look. "Legend has it, it was the second foreign word my dad learnt after crêpes. It took him, like, _years_ to start saying words longer than three syllables. Said they were too long to be practical or something."

"Yeah but so did you" Ben reminded her "It took you until you were, like, _six _to say a word." His face then twisted into a smirk. "Problem is, since then, you've never _stopped_ talking."

Accompanied by a mock gasp of hurt, Summer slapped him on the arm. "Watch it Mister! Point is, now Hanukkah is over and now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."

"Aww" Ben grinned, looking flattered, sliding his sunglasses up onto his forehead so he could look Summer brown-eye to green-eye. "I'm touched my 'only significant other I need in my life'."

Summer grinned back and gave him a brief but tight hug around the shoulders (noting the fact he appeared to have put on a little weight over the two weeks they were apart and saving it in the back of her mind for future blackmail) and rested her head on his shoulder just in time for a cloud to shift and for the sun to come beating down on them once again. Summer hastily shaded her eyes from the intense light. "Favourite place in the world maybe, but why is it whenever we come here, it's always so hot you could fry an egg on a Pokédollar?"

"Well it could be worse" Ben pointed out, returning to his puzzle "It could be like home was."

Summer raised an eyebrow. She'd spent most of her holiday at her home in Chicole Village; Ben's parents lived in Pueltown, so they'd spent most of the holidays apart. "Which was?"

Ben tapped his chin with his pencil, looking pensive. "Snowmageddon."

Summer facepalmed. "Snowmageddon? Seriously?" She looked over at Ben's suduko puzzle. "And just how old are you? Eighty?"

"I'll have you know solving puzzles like these improves critical thinking, creativity, attitude and focus" Ben gave her _the_ _look_. Since he'd lost some of his baby fat, it was easier for him to pull it off these days.

"So you basically just admitted that you're dull, uncreative and impatient" Summer remarked "I can see you're focused, 'cos ya haven't noticed that there's an orange peel on your head for the past three minutes."

"No I'm not...wait what?" Ben slapped his hand on top of his hair (cut quite a bit shorter so now it less resembled a smoke-plume - rumouredly due to the expense the Union had been covering of the amount of hair spray and gel he had needed to keep it in position) and yanked the orange peel off of it, frowning and grimacing a bit. No one dared to question what been the fate of the orange.

"You, my significant other, are very, very mean" Ben gave her _the look_ again.

"Aww, you love me really" Summer grinned, looping an arm around his shoulders.

"Well, I'd better" he mumbled "Second we dock, I'm official stuck with you on archipelago of less than 2000 residents."

Summer was about to reply, when a familiar voice piped up from the back of her mind:

"**Oh please - you're hardly ****_alone_****. You've got two dimwits to deal with.**"

Summer stiffened, the white of her unusual pupils dimming slightly. '_Two_?'

* * *

With a flick of his gloved hand, Nick reset the circuit breaker for the smoke alarm. To his relief, the smoke alarm stopped blaring and possibly sending out a homing beacon for Martians to track their location from their base on the moon.

"Whew" Nema wiped her brow as she strode out of her room, covered in soot, grime and who knows what else. "Crisis 479 averted."

"479?" Nick blinked "What happened to the other 478?"

"Thanks for helping Nick - couldn't have done it without you" Nema carried on, taking her work gloves off and placing them in the kitchen counter, yet again forgetting her father's rule about that. "I mean, Papa's off on patrol and Mama never leaves her office unless she's had a break through or the whole _island_ is on the verge of a meltdown and Summer and Ben are away - I need some big, strong adult-power to get stuff fixed to prevent nuclear catastrophes. Orange juice or sprite?"

Nick was about to correct her by mentioning as he was only 16-years-of-age he was not yet an adult and warn her about the Martians potentially sending war machines after them because of the smoke alarm disrupting their 'evil take-over-the-universe plotting seminar', but Nema was spared the rant by her last request. "Huh?"

Nema strode across to the sink, picked up a recently washed pan and began to fill it with water. "I'm going to cook some Sunday Lunch - just with a whole lot less vegetables."

Nick was about to remind the thirteen-year-old scientist it wasn't even Sunday and this idea was clearly the result of radiation poisoning or demonic possession, but she once-again stopped him before he could begin. "But do you want a drink first? Orange juice or sprite?"

"Er...sprite please" Nick answered, deciding that he was more likely to be killed by choking on an orange pip than getting horrendous gas pains from the gas bubbles in sprite.

Nema placed the half-filled pot of water on the hob before pouring some sprite mixed with water (she'd learnt from the days he'd spent at her house that he liked it best that way) into a glass for him. Nick took a seat at the table as she set it down for him, not completely trusting him not to drop it and freak out.

"Can I just ask you something?" Nema inquired.

"Er...you'll ask even if I say no" Nick pointed out.

"Why do you wear your watch on your left hand?" Nema asked, completely disregarding Nick's answer to her plainly rhetorical previous question. "I mean, you're left-handed - everybody knows that. Shouldn't you wear it on your right hand or something?"

Nick blinked up at her strangely, plainly not understanding what she was getting at. "But Booker wears it on his left hand?"

Nema just sighed like he was a lost cause (which, honestly, he probably was) as she turned the hob on so the water for the potatoes would boil. "And why are you wearing an Almian family signet ring anyway? I've been meaning to ask you that all day. You're as Kantonese as a Pokéball."

"My _family_ are from Cinnabar Island - I was born and raised in Oblivia" Nick clarified "And it's Booker's. He found it when he was clearing out some of his old junk last week. It doesn't fit on his finger anymore and he doesn't have any children to give it to, so he gave it to me."

Nema grinned, glancing up from the dials she was turning to set the hob's heat, Nick's eyes flickering nervously over to the pot with the rapidly-heating water contained in it. "Aww, he likes you!"

Nick snorted. "Likes me? I bet that old bachelor doesn't even like himself. I mean just last week he—" Nick suddenly sat up ram-rod straight, his gloved hands tightening almost impossibly around his glass of sprite to point Nema was surprised it didn't crack. "Oh no! Could it be?! Could Booker possibly be a serial killer, lying in wait to—!"

Let's leave Nick be shall we? The guy tends to talk in chapters, so sometimes it's just better to let him go on and on and wear himself out rather than trying to interrupt.

Nema meanwhile was struggling valiantly to open what had previously been dubbed: 'The-more-secure-than-Fort-Knox Nema-approved impossible-drawer'.

"Need some help?" Nick offered after he'd been forced to take a breath, then he paled "Oh no! Could it be?! A horrifying, terrifying monster has sealed—"

"Nick, the only horrifying, terrifying monster is whoever gave you that haircut" Nema cut him off, well used to Nick's rants by now. She finally unjammed the drawer and pulled out her trusty wooden spoon. "And don't try to deny it - you haven't taken that bandana off since I was six."

"It-It takes time to find a signature haircut - and I don't want anybody seeing my hair until I'm satisfied nobody will feed me to the cannibals for it, or have me abducted by aliens because they think I'm the mutated spawn of one, or send me off to—" Nick stopped as he registered the look on Nema's face and went back to his original tangent. "Anyway, hair...it's like art. It—"

"Art?!" Nema blew a raspberry "You call hair-dressing art?"

"Well they both take skill and talent, so it must be art" Nick pointed out.

"Oh yeah?" Nema raised an eyebrow "It take skill and talent to hit someone with a saturated-milk balloon from 50 feet away - but I don't go around calling that _art_."

Nick fumbled (as usual) for a response before settling on a shaky: "W-Well, I guess I'll have to prove it to you. Someday. I will."

Nema rolled her eyes. "Sure you will Seaweed Head, right after Ben beats Summer at karate chops."

"Hey!" Nick complained loudly "For the last time, neither my hair nor my brain - I think - are made of seaweed!"

"Tell that to the crabs that live in it!" Nema shot back.

"I do not have—!"

"Nema! Nick! Don't make me come down there!" Leanne, Nema's mama, called down from her study on the second floor.

"He started it!" Nema protested.

"I don't care who started it! I'll _finish_ it!"

Nema pouted. "It was so totally _your_ fault!"

"Nema! I'm warning you!"

"Sorry Mama!" Nema called upstairs, not wanting to be grounded in her mother's office when Summer and Ben arrived. She hated only being 13 sometimes.

"We're sorry!" Nick chimed in, then lowered his voice to gasp: "Unless—! Oh no! Could it be?! You're not really sorry and are secretly hiding plans to kill me and chop my body into—!"

"Nick, shut up!" Nema cut him off, absentmindedly stirring the pot with the wooden spoon, though not actually looking at it. "Summer and Ben 'll be here soon and I can't be grounded when they do! I have a mega surprise in store for them!"

Nick just blinked dumbly at her, twisting his glass in his hands. "Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"

Nema just nodded with a sigh and glanced down into her pot, whimsical for a second.

But only a second.

"AHHH! Mum, I burnt the water!"

* * *

Hello?

Hello, is anybody there?

Hello?!

...

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Somebody...

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Please...

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Please help me...

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Help me...

...please...


	2. Family matters

**"Freedom to use hair-care products - it's in the Bill of Rights."**

**"Excuse my French, but what the hell is wrong with you?!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Two - Family matters**

_Summer threw her head back, letting the wind whip back her brown hair and her scarf. She wrapped her arms tighter around her father's torso as she had so many times before, listening to the engine of the motorbike roaring beneath them as the world sped by in a blur of colour. _

_"Hold on!" Her father had to yell to be heard over the engine. But her godfather had told her many times before that her father was an expert in the art of being loud. "We're almost home!" _

_Summer nodded. She had been along this route many times in her twelve years of life, and knew they were approaching Chicole Village._

_A minute later, the motorbike sped into the village with an unholy roar, kicking up a cloud of dust as it spun around at the Southern end and headed back towards the top again. But before the motorbike could get back up to speed, it jerked to a stop, nearly throwing Summer off._

_"Whoa! What the— holy cheddar! Whatta ya doing Kel?! I nearly ran you over!"_

_Summer peered around her father to see what he was complaining about. There, standing only two metres away from the front wheel of the motorbike with his hands on his hips, was her Uncle Kellyn._

_"What am **I** doing, Keith? I think the question is what are you doing?" Summer recognised the tone her godfather was speaking in. It was the same voice he had used when she and her friend Murph had stolen his capture styler for the day. "Maybe **you** would like to explain why, for the **millionth** time, I must scold you for taking my goddaughter out on this dangerous piece of machinery when the safety—"_

_"Oh here we go again" Keith muttered to his daughter "And so the monologue begins." Summer laughed in response. Whenever Kellyn got riled up about something, he could easily go on until the middle of next week. His record rant was 8 hours long and he was trying break it. World War 3 had nearly occurred between Kellyn and Keith at least 10 times in the past - mainly about how Keith had chosen to raise his daughter. How they survived as next-door neighbours as well as colleagues was a mystery to the entire universe._

_"—safety gear and helmets! Well, at least you had the decency to give your daughter one but of course you would go racing through the woods on this dangerou—"_

_"Uncle Kellyn!" Summer jumped off of the motorbike and ran over to her godfather, giving him the biggest hug possible, successfully cutting him off. Kellyn stopped ranting and smiled, giving his goddaughter a hug back. He then pushed her away slightly and removed the goggles of the motorbike helmet from her eyes. Lively dark-green eyes almost freakishly similar to Kellyn's own looked up at him. A long way up. Despite his infamous 'Shorty' title during his first years as a ranger, when he hit 17, Kellyn had shot up so quickly people had started wondering if Vatona and Nage had used him as a test-dummy for a growth experiment. Now he towered over most people - even Keith, much to the ginger's annoyance. The only way he could exert revenge these days was through the nickname 'Beanpole', which quickly climbed to the top of Kellyn's least favourite words._

_"Aw, so Summer gets a hug and I don't?" Keith pouted, climbing off his 'oh so precious' motorbike. It had been a birthday present when he was 18 - from **himself** no less - and he'd treasured it ever since then. Unfortunately, Kellyn didn't see the perks of motorbikes - or of taking twelve-year-old girls on them._

_"Motorbikes are one of the most dangerous forms of transport Keith - let alone when you ride them off-road! Have you seen the safety ratings for those things?! They—!"_

_"Yeah yeah, very long ramble, blah de blah de blah" Keith motioned for Kellyn to skip to the next part "Where's Kans?"_

_Kellyn rolled his eyes. "Kan**sas** is at the Union already. Like a responsible adult, she took a Staraptor there. Not this environment-polluting heap of metal!" He kicked the motorbike for good measure. "Honestly, I'll never understand what she sees in you."_

_"Oh, I dunno Kel" Keith sighed dramatically "Maybe she likes this little thing most human beings have - it's called a sense of humour." _

_Summer giggled. There was something about her father that made almost everyone laugh at what he said, even if it wasn't all that funny. _

_"Alright, have your fun" Kellyn sighed "You can be late, but I sure ain't gonna be." He turned away and began to walk towards the exit of the village._

_"Spoil-sport" Keith grumbled before smiling at his daughter "So, who wants to ride to the Ranger Union on Daddy's motorbike?"_

_"Yeah!" Summer cheered, nodding her head eagerly._

_"Absolutely not!" Kellyn immediately shot back._

_"Oh c'mon, Kelly!" Keith groaned "Live a little! If you tried it just once, you might find you actually enjoy it."_

_Kellyn shot him the most frustrated and exasperated look in the history of frustrated and exasperated looks. "Keith, you're not understanding what I'm saying!"_

_"Yeah, too right I'm not."_

_Summer laughed at the comeback._

_Kellyn grit his teeth as he tried to restrain himself from punching Keith in front of Summer. _

_"Oh re-**lax** will you, Beanpole!" Keith grinned at him, swinging one leg over his motorbike "Geez, you wouldn't know fun if it tied you up and slapped in the face with a fish!" His grin got even wider at that. "Actually, that's a brilliant idea! Summer, you tie him up, I'll go find a fish!"_

_Summer giggled. She had to admit, her dad did have a point. She'd scarcely ever seen her Uncle Kellyn **smile** before, let alone have fun. The only time she'd seen him truly happy about something was when she found a video of him and her Aunt Kate singing 'Defying Gravity' from the musical 'Wicked' when they were still teenagers - and his expression had been **anything** but fun when he'd found her, Ben and Murph watching it._

_"What do you mean I don't know fun?" Kellyn glowered at the ginger man on the motorbike "I am capable of plenty of fun thank you - just in moderated doses, unlike **someone** we know."_

_"Kellyn, you're the guy who took Summer to the theme park for her eighth birthday only to refuse to get on any rides with the excuse - and I quote - 'No Small Child, I'm not getting on that lawsuit waiting to happen'" Keith shot his best friend (a position they both maintained for some reason neither for them - Kellyn in particular - were particularly sure of ) a raised-eyebrow look. Kellyn took a deep breath before executing a storm-off that would make Rhythmi Song proud. "Oh c'mon Kelly! I'm only joking! Build a bridge and get over it!"_

_But Kellyn promptly ignored him in favour of completing his dramatic storm-off by vanishing from sight around the corner._

_"And he calls me a child" Keith shook his head, pulling his goggles down over his eyes, then grinning down at his daughter who was stood at the foot of the motorbike. "So, Little Lady? Who's up for a another spin on this baby?!"_

* * *

_The Ranger Union's lobby was always packed with people from all walks of life. Today was no different, Summer noted, her twelve-year-old brain taking note of every detail it could absorb. Two receptionists stood at the desk, taking requests from the line of concerned citizens queuing in front of their desk. Murph Imachi bumbled__ from one end of the lobby to the other, knocking into people repeatedly as he rattled a list off of a clipboard, his thirteen-year-old son and namesake hurrying after him in a similar fashion. Two female area rangers - Summer had forgotten their names, they were a bit older than her - were chatting on their break in the comfort of two armchairs. A faint boom and a slight shake of the building told her Mr Vatona or Mr Nage probably had their inventing hats on; maybe they were reinventing a new and improved nuclear bomb like they'd always threatened to if Professor Hastings forgot to pay them again. And finally, standing near the escalator giving Uncle Kellyn a pat on the shoulder was her mother._

_Summer had always thought her mother was the prettiest woman to have ever existed. Kansas Dazaru - née Kimura - was of supermodel-beauty and a sore sight to any eye. Her blonde hair was kept back off her face by a blue ribbon, as always, and her ocean blue eyes stood out in only the most perfect ways in her porcelain face. Uncle Kellyn always joked Summer's father had had to complete a series of tasks equivalent to that of The Twelve Trials of Hercules to even get her mother's attention, though Kanna - as she was affectionately known - always told Summer it was simply a case of love at first sight at the tender age of seventeen. Still, Summer wished she could look more like her mother instead of having her dull brown hair and green eyes that weren't even apparent on her father._

_"Would you like to explain why Kellyn just came in here swearing and raging about health violations and child abuse?" Kanna raised a challenging white-blonde eyebrow as she strutted (yes, _**_strutted_**_ - it was a word Summer's father used to refer to Kanna walking anywhere and then had pretty much begged Summer not to use in front of the woman herself) over to them as they approached the escalator._

_"Oh don't you go worrying about him" Keith chuckled, wrapping his arms around her "Kelly's just flipping his word-I-cannot-say-in-front-of-our-daughter again." _

_Knowing that probing further would probably give her a front-row seat for the next segment of what Sven had once stupidly called '**World War Kelleith**', Kanna merely laughed it off, rubbing his jacket-clad shoulders and pecking the lips of her husband of fourteen years._

_"Ew! Seriously!" Summer pulled a face, looking sickened as she hurried away from her parents and sat herself down on the side-rail of the currently unmoving escalator. __She resumed her original task- from before she walked into the Ranger Union - of scrolling through her styler, looking for a mini-game to distract her more than ever now. "Do you guys, like, have to do that in public?! Save it for the bedroom or somewhere!"_

_Her parents may be one of the cutest couples in ranger history, but that didn't mean she had to put up with their seemingly endless PDA._

_"Save it for the bedroom?" Kellyn echoed, then sending Keith a murderous glance "Keith, I swear—"_

_"Aww, what's wrong sweetheart? Don't like me like me kissing your beautiful mother?" Keith's face read nothing but mischief, only looking away from Summer for the briefest if seconds to return the peck on his wife's lips. "Well, I'll remember this conversation when you get a boyfriend."_

_Whilst Kellyn looked absolute horrified at the idea of his goddaughter **ever** getting a boyfriend, Summer shot her father the devil of all glares. If Kellyn was paying attention to it, he would've been quite impressed. "Dad! If you even think about embarrassing me like that, so Arceus help you, __my teenage rebellion period will be so hard, it will make the Unovan Revolution look like a picnic!"_

_That just turned her father's snorts and chuckles into full-on laughs._

_Kellyn sighed and rolled his eyes. "I personally wanted to toss him out the window the second they started acting all lovey-dovey before they ever _**_got together_**_ and were still acting so awkwardly in love it was **killing** us all, but your mother argued against that for some reason."_

_Of course Kellyn didn't see the 'irony' sign practically neon flashing above his head as he said that. His awkward years with Kate had caused so much sexual tension it resulted in some very awkward hook-up around the Ranger Union. But hey, it also resulted in Murph Sr finding his now-wife so at least something good came out of those years of waiting and waiting for them to get their act together._

_"Oh come on! What is your problem with me?" Keith sent him a frustrated if not slightly confused look, the laughter ceasing immediately. Summer froze on her perch as her mother carefully disentangled herself from her husband's arms and came to stand next to her daughter__ - it was common knowledge that t_o _say Kellyn Hajime's relationship with Keith Dazuru was volatile at best was a bit like saying The Great Wall Of China was 'kind of long'._

_"Oh I don't know, maybe it's your 'life's a big game' attitude, or the over-bearing amount of artificial products you put in your hair?" Kellyn replied, shooting out anything he could think of about Keith that annoyed him - and believe me, if he was allowed to continue, we could be here a while. "Seriously, it's a good job you don't smoke or you'd spontaneously combust. I could light a match next to you and you'd burn the place down like a freaking candle."_

_"Hey, I can wear hair-gel if I want" Keith shot back, pouting although that hadn't really worked since the day he'd turned nineteen. "Freedom to use hair-care products - it's in the Bill of Rights."_

_Summer looked up at him and frowned. "Didn't the founding fathers all wear wigs?"_

_Keith didn't have anything to say to that, but looked like he wanted to say something. So Summer asked something else of __her Uncle Kellyn: "Did you really want to throw Daddy out of the window?"_

_Kellyn rolled his eyes, but still gave her one of those smiles that didn't quite reach his eyes - one of those smiles that was just Uncle Kellyn in a nutshell with a bow around it. "No Sweetie, I was joking."_

_Keith almost choked on his own saliva at that, halfway between laughing and staring at him in disbelief._

_"What?!" Kellyn's smile immediately faded as he resumed glaring at Keith. "I was joking. I'm allowed to joke."_

_"Joke, oh please!" Keith clutched his stomach, breath escaping his throat in a mixture of spluttering, coughing and laughter. "This is the guy who's jokes always start with 'A man walked into a bar'!"_

_"And the other man ducked" Kellyn finished for him. Summer giggled, but she was the only one who did._

_"I'm sorry Kellyn, but your jokes do get boring after the first four or so" Kanna chipped in, moving to stand next to her husband in full support of him._

_Kellyn glowered at her, but Kanna knew not to take it personally. "Okay, first of all, my jokes are **not** boring."_

_Keith looked over at Summer, stage-whispering to her with a grin: "That's what **he** thinks."_

_Summer's giggle clearly gave it away, if the look on Kellyn's face was everything to go by. "Keith..."_

_Keith winced in the face of the mother of all glares complete with a low growl. "Ooh, Scary Kellyn! Okay, okay!"_

_"Kelly, please tell me you're not threatening Keith in front of Summer again."_

_'**Saved by the bell**' Summer couldn't help but think '**Or rather, saved by Aunt Kate**.'_

_Sure enough, her Aunt Kate was peering down at them from the top of the escalators. Even at the age of almost-thirty-seven, Summer always thought her godmother looked like one of those cutesie animated characters she'd seen on the television. She just looked too adorable to be real with her neck-length ginger hair __and kid-like facial features. But whenever she was around Summer, the twelve-year-old could see a look of sadness and longing on her face, something she tried to keep buried beneath a facade of over-the-top happiness but was never quite able to do so. When she'd asked her father about it, he knew exactly what she was talking about:_

_**"It's a bit of jealousy really" he'd explained "She always wanted a child of her own."**_

_**"Why didn't she?" Summer frowned, not understanding.**_

_**"Because the identity of their father would mean they'd never get to have a normal life" Keith responded "They'd pretty much have to be kept in protective custody until they were old enough to defend themselves efficiently."**_

_**"Uncle Kellyn? Why?" Summer pressed on, feeling like this was starting to become a game of twenty-questions, but genuinely curious as to why she didn't have any god-cousins, if that was the correct term.**_

_**"You know what he is, right?" Keith looked around them discreetly, but it appeared no one was listening in on their conversation in the cafe in Pueltown where they did those awesome cheesecakes that both father and daughter just ****loved****.**_

**_ "A psychic being, like me" Summer responded, her white pupils almost lighting up at a bit as she said that with such pride. _**

**_"Well, even for a psychic being Uncle Kellyn a bit...different" Keith looked like he was trying to figure out the best way to put this to child "He's...special. He's someone important to a lot of people on different planes."_**

**_"Aeroplanes?" Summer frowned in confusion, spoon halfway to her mouth, not quite understanding where aeroplanes came into this._**

**_"No, planes of existence...argh!" Keith dropped his spoon on his saucer and started kneading his forehead as if he had a headache. "Ask me when you're older! I'm getting a migraine!"_**

**_"So, Uncle Kellyn can't have kids because he's too special?" Summer tried to understand._**

**_"Well, leverage wouldn't cover it if something happened to a kid of his" Keith tried to explain, but then it looked like words failed him and he returned to his desert "Again, just, I'll explain when you're older, okay? Now eat your cheesecake - I've got to get you home before your mother finds out."_**

_Apparently 'when you're older' wasn't twelve-years-old._

_"Come on up" Kate gestured for them to come upstairs "There's someone here to see you."_

_Wondering if anyone else from her extended family had come to see her off on her first top ranger mission brief - maybe her Uncle Sorrel or Uncle Percy or one of Uncle Percy's kids - Summer hurried up to the second floor and grinned when she saw who was there._

_"Ben-Ben!" She cheered, throwing herself at him to grab him in hug "I told them you wouldn't be late! I told them!"_

_Benjamin Devon Natsuya had been her best friend for as long as Summer could remember. She, Ben and Murph Jr were the only three kids their ages to live in Chicole Village, and they all shared the same dream of working for the Ranger Union some day. Summer and Ben were particularly close, mostly because of their love of fun and positive views on life in general. So when Ben had been stationed at Vientown Ranger Base, Summer made sure she was stationed there too. There was a year's difference between them - Ben was thirteen, she was twelve - but it didn't stop them from being the best of partners and accelerating to top rangers at a speed only rivalled by Summer's father and godparents. _

_"Summer, need breath!" Ben hissed looking around nervously as the electric lights around them started to flicker and glow in response to Summer's psychic powers. He pushed her back as bit and tried to engage in conversation to stop any fuses from blowing. "I promised I wouldn't be late this time - they weren't gonna stop me from my first briefing as a top ranger."_

_Summer detected the sadness behind his grin and tried to drop the subject, the lights dimming down again simultaneously, but her mother wasn't as good at reading her daughter's best friend's emotions._

_"No one here to see you off, Ben?" she asked despite Summer's pleading look to stop the second she figured out what her mother was about to say._

_Immediately, Ben's smile turned forced and he replied with a terse: "Nope."_

_Summer winced at the pang of guilt and rage she felt within her as he said that. Despite growing up in a region renowned for being the motherland to rangers, the Natsuyas were very clear than none of their children were going to become rangers. Both parents were doctors, and three of their grandparents had been doctors in the Great War half a centuary ago. Ben had been trained to follow the family legacy pretty much from the second they received the sonogram. But Summer's family had opened his eyes to world of rangers, and he was hooked immediately. His dream was something that had caused numerous fierce clashes with his parents, until it got to point that - with funding from his sympathetic aunt in Goldenrod City - he'd applied for Ranger School and spent almost two whole years there, only returning home for a few days at Christmas to see his extended family. His parents weren't there at his graduation, or when he became a top ranger, so it was no real surprise to Summer they wouldn't be here for his first top ranger mission briefing either. _

_'__**It just isn't fair**__' Summer couldn't help but think '**Someone as nice as Ben deserves the greatest family in the history of families.**' __Because despite his dead-beat parents, Ben was a good kid. He'd even managed to earn her Uncle Kellyn's approval (he was always worryingly concerned about who she was friends with, Summer had never figured out why) __after a monologue about responsibility and priorities and for some reason the cholera epidemic of 1854. Uncle Kellyn __always made sense up to a certain point. After that there was just no way to find a common denominator for different bits of information or pointless trivia he just spat at you. Summer guessed that was the reason he got along with her father still after all these years - they spoke the same language, to a degree._

_"Nervous?" Kellyn asked, breaking the awkward tension in the hallway that had become so thick you could literally cut it with a knife._

_"Yeah" Ben admitted, rubbing the back of his head whilst Summer sent her godfather a bashful smile of confirmation. _

_"Okay, remember, chin up and act like you know everything" Keith reminded her once again, giving her a rather hard clap on the shoulder blade "Show even the slightest weakness, Prof. Hastings will eat you up alive. He can _**_smell_**_ fear." _

_"No, he could smell the urine from when you peed your pants the first eight times you saw him" Kellyn folded his arms and sent his partner a knowing look._

_Surprisingly, Keith didn't try to deny the claim. "That was one time! And the guy was carrying a freaking cane! I didn't know what he was going to do with it!"_

_"He has a cane?" Ben looked up at Kellyn, alarmed at this news he'd never heard before._

_'**Poor kid, not having ranger parents must suck**' Summer inwardly winced. She knew she was lucky to have two parents and a set of godparents who were rangers - it meant she could be homeschooled and take her official ranger certification test a year early. Ben had had to go the long way, surviving two years of ranger school and working his way up the ranks to top ranger in a surprisingly quick amount of time. It meant though that Ben had no source what-so-ever for finding out tit-bits of essential info for surviving the almost kindergarten-like world of top rangers._

_"Don't worry, the guy's, like, eighty-something-years-old - the only thing he's hitting with that cane is the edge of his own armchair" Summer reassured him. Ben seemed to relax a tiny bit - but only a **tiny** bit. His shoulders were still hunched up around his neck. Summer couldn't help but make comparisons to a fluffed up Starly._

_"It's one o'clock" Kellyn called up from behind them, Summer couldn't see where - maybe from one of the escalators. _

_"That's your cue to go in" Kate translated for them._

_Ben gave Summer a sideways glance. "You ready for our first mission as official top rangers?" _

_"Are you kidding me?" Summer allowed herself to smirk a bit "I was raised by some of Almia's finest top rangers. I practically grew up inside this building. I was pretty much bred for this." _

_Ben chuckled. "Well good for some, I was raised by two doctors." Shaking his head, he clapped her in the shoulder, similar to how her father had just before. "C'mon."_

_And with that they pushed the green door open, and let fate throw whatever it had up its sleeve at them..._

* * *

"Summer. Oi Summer! Wakey-Wakey, rise and shine!"

Summer was startled awake by frantic shaking of the surface she was lying on as well at that annoying voice that was practically inside her ear and reverberating off of her brain.

"Ben! Gerroff!" She gowned, shoving him away and causing the hammock she was lying in to sway violently, almost tipping her out.

"C'mon silly, you've been asleep for hours" Ben grinned, taking a few steps back a) so Summer could get out of the hammock, and b) so he could have a head-start if Summer tried to throttle him. "We're at Tilt Village already. Murph's gone to get some grub for his journey home, so we've gotta leave before he gets back."

Scowling, Summer got down from the hammock and glared over at the ocean. On command, a blob of sea water rose from the surface and propelled itself at Ben, narrowly missing his head.

'_Darn_' she thought as Ben chuckled and his Staraptor cackled like a parrot from up on the mast. '_I need more practise_.' Annoyingly enough, the only psychic being she knew besides herself was her Uncle Kellyn, and whilst he had some awesome powers at went from telekinesis to opening up rifts in time and space (or at least, he claimed he could do it. No one could actually back this up with witness testimony), he couldn't control the elements, so Summer had pretty much and to train herself.

"**Oh, I feel so loved. Nice to see the pointers I gave you were useless. Love you too and all that. And your aim is terrible - that's what happens when you rely on your Pokémon too much.**"

'_Oh will you shut up for once_!' Summer shot back in her head, bending down to fasten her boots. As she looked up though, she saw something in the sky that did _not_ belong. "What in the name of Arceus is that?"

Ben twisted his neck to look around Tilt Village, missing the point entirely. "What is what?"

Summer glared at him. She'd just woken up after a long boat journey and was not in the mood for games. "Are you blind or just plain thick?!"

Ben winced. "Ooh, Angry Summer. Haven't seen you in a while."

Grabbing Ben's neck in what could only be described as a 'Vulcan death grip', Summer growled with frustration and dragged him over to the side of the boat, gesturing to what she was referring to. A big grey-ish dot was travelling across the sky at what appeared to be a leisurely pace, similar to an aeroplane, but lower and not producing any jet fumes.

"Bird Pokémon by any chance, 'Official Area Ranger'?" Summer glared, unimpressed, marking Ben's new title with air quotes.

Ben shaded his eyes from the sun and squinted. "Well it's too big to be a Staraptor. Latias maybe?"

Summer shook her head. "No. No, it's not her."

The two of them then watched at three little dots emerged from the grey dot, circling it before zipping away in different directions hyper-speed.

"**_Yikes that's fast_**" Summer heard Ben's Staraptor remark, followed by some murmuring agreement from Pokémon around Tilt Village.

"Whoa" was all Summer could say as she watched the little dots fly away into the distance. She poked Ben to make sure he was seeing it too. "You saw that too right? Ben?"

Frowning at her partner's lack of response, Summer looked at him this time. Her poke became a gentle grip as she realised the whole of Ben's body was vibrating his eyes wide and unfocused. "Ben, you're trembling. What's the—?"

"STOP IT! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET OFF ME! GET OFF!" Ben's screaming reaction was so sudden and violent, Summer didn't see the fist coming until it was on her chest.

Forced back by the punch and completely caught off guard, Summer didn't notice her friend was practically hyperventilating and his eyes were wildly darting around over everything. She couldn't process anything until she had grabbed his wrist in a painfully tight grip. He was lucky she hadn't let her psychic powers lash out at him or he might've been supporting third-degree burns by this stage. "Excuse my French, but what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"LET GO! LET GO!" Ben was practically sobbing by this stage as he tried to jerk away from her whilst thrashing his other arm about, as if pleading for his life. Wherever the hell his head was, it clearly wasn't on the deck of The Union parked at the dock in Tilt Village. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING ME AGAIN! LET GO OFF OF! LET GO!"

Summer dearly prayed this was just an outward reaction to one of Ben's 'episodes'. Occasionally he'd just go quiet, sit down and stare at nothing for a while before returning a few minutes later right as rain. She didn't know where he went in his head during one of these episodes, and they were pretty much the only thing he refused to talk to her about. She couldn't recall if he'd been having them since childhood or if they were something new, but she'd never sen him act violently like this in the midst of one. One thing was for certain, he needed snapping out of it.

SLAP!

Summer was pretty sure her folks back home heard the crack of skin on skin as Ben's head snapped to the right. His thrashing stopped immediately, and for a few seconds they did nothing but stand there and tried to catch their breaths. Then Ben's brown eyes met Summer's green ones, and he stumbled backwards into The Union's side rail, wrenching his wrist free to cover his mouth with his hand, staring at her in utter horror. It was as if he himself couldn't comprehend what he'd just done.

"Are you going to tell me why you just attacked me right now?" Summer asked, voice low in an effort not to spook him too much. She'd never seen her partner like this before and treating him like a spooked Pokémon was the only thing she could think to do right now.

Ben clearly wanted to say something, but only a few strangled noise escaped his throat. Then, with an anguished whine, he bolted off of the deck and up the slope into Tilt Village.

"**_I'll keep an eye on him_**" his Staraptor offered with a sigh, taking off into the air to follow him.

Summer, absolutely thunderstruck, could only, stand there gazing out over the ocean, not able to process or understand what had just happened before her very eyes.

"**Nicely handled, Little Miss Shrink**."

Summer didn't even snap for him to shut his trap this time. She just raised her styler to the sky and called for Raikou.


End file.
